


Outside

by Nyan_Ryder



Category: We Happy Few (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Humor, In which Arthur Hastings gets told off by a tiny child, Post-Canon, Tags will be updated with the story, bad survival skills
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-16 06:32:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18089252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyan_Ryder/pseuds/Nyan_Ryder
Summary: After escaping Wellington Wells, Arthur finds himself alone fighting for survival in the wilderness just as he did within the city.But he isn’t quite alone.During his walk to no where in particular, he meets a tiny sarcastic child.





	Outside

“Lovely...day for it.”

“Lovely day!? It’s a bloody shitty day! Have you noticed the drops of water falling from the sky!?”

“You’re right, it is a rather shit day.”

It wasn’t too long after Arthur had escaped from the deceivingly bright town of Wellington Wells. He was hurt, tired, and hungry, but he had escaped. Now, after all of his troubles, he was faced with a tiny sarcastic child.

_...Wait...a child?_

“Uuuh mister, are you okay?”

Arthur looked down at the child before him once more. “Y-you’re a...child!”

“Woooow really!? I never would have known!” The child rolled his eyes.

“How did you...get here?” Arthur questioned, still staring in awe.

“I think that’s a question you should have asked your parents.”

Arthur’s expression softened, the rush of seeing a living, breathing child before him after 17 years faded. He had forgotten the key feature that children came with: disrespect towards elders.

“Haven’t your parents taught you any respect?” Arthur huffed, sticking his nose up.

“Haven’t your parents taught you how to not ask stupid questions?”

Arthur took a deep breath. There wasn’t going to be any kind of victory against the small rascal, so he decided it was best to move on.

“Well then, I guess I’ll be on my way!” Arthur strutted away, earning a confused look from the rascal.

“Where are you going?” He started following suit behind Arthur.

Arthur paused. Where was he going? The plan was to escape Wellington Wells, and magically find Percy, wherever he was. But he wasn’t about to let his little shadow see his weakness.

“Uh...well...right here of course!” Arthur pointed to his feet, raising his head confidently. The child, however, didn’t buy it. 

“Whatever you say champ.” He simply rolled his eyes and disappeared into the bushes.

Arthur smiled to himself, glad the little shit finally left him be. He thought for a second before his smile was wiped clean off his face.

_That child was clearly from a village, he could have helped you Arthur you idiot!_

It was far too late to call the village boy back, perhaps it’s time to set up a camp. 

He remembered Percy teaching him three ways to light a fire: With twigs, the right kind of rocks, or a pair of glasses. The sky was awfully cloudy, so glasses were out of the question. He crouched and scoured around for twigs.

A bit later, Arthur had set up a small pile of twigs and leaves. He furiously rubbed two twigs together over the rickety campfire, hoping for a spark, or even just some warmth, god it was freezing and his clothes were drenched.

There was a rustling coming from the surrounding forest, footsteps, and they were approaching. Arthur readied his cricket bat, barely prepared to face whatever horror would come through those bushes, eager to rip him to shreds.

The creature emerged from the bushes, it’s horrible face staring right back at Arthur. It approached, closer, and closer, until it finally stopped. It’s jaw began to open, like it was about to speak.

“What the bloody hell are you so scared of? It’s just me again!” The creature, that bratty kid, had returned for round two.

“What are you doing back here?” Arthur snapped, putting his pride before his safety once more. “Don’t you know I’m trying to build a camp? I was doing just fine on my own!”

The brat looked down at the limp pile of twigs only Arthur would ever call a campfire. “Clearly” he said, rolling his eyes “did you know you’re trying to build a fire with wet twigs?”

Arthur’s eyes widened, the record scratch was almost audible.

_Oh bloody hell, the rain! How could I forget about the rain!_

“You’re going to want to build a shelter over the fire to keep the rain off of it, and one for yourself too.”

“W-well, Of course! I was just about to do that!” Arthur lied, rather ungraciously.

The child only chuckled. “Alright. Oh, and take this. Mum says it’ll make things a bit easier on you.” He produced a small box of matches from his pocket and handed it to Arthur.

“I...” Arthur was at a loss for words, beginning to grow embarrassed of his survival skills, or lack thereof, outside of fighting for his life back in Wellington Wells. Now the tiny beast’s mum knew about him! Well...the matchbook is rather helpful.  
“Thank you- your mum! Thank...your mum for me.”

The child simply smirked and disappeared into the bushes once more.

Hours later, progress on the fire pit, and a shelter for Arthur himself, was going splendidly! However, there was only progress.

A weak, leaning mess of twigs and leaves barely held itself over the still soaking wood and an area behind it. The rain began to build up within the mediocre pile of leaves intended to guard a warm and roaring fire that may never exist, and broke it, soaking the already drenched fire pit even more.

Arthur let out a defeated sigh, and scooted underneath his tipsy shelter. He pulled the matchbook that child, no, that child’s mother, so generously gave to him. He turned it in his hands, examining the scratched designs and letters. He then opened it, hoping to get some kind of warmth, even if it was a tiny fire on the end of a...

Matchstick...

“That little shit!” Arthur yelled audibly as he opened the box. Within held only air, and now rain water. He crushed the box within his fingers and threw it across his camp, into the forest. As he launched the prank matchbox across the area, his elbow grazed a side of his weary shelter, and it all came tumbling down.

As his shelter was destroyed, so was our poor survivalist’s will to go on. He tucked his knees into his chest and fell on his side in the mud.

Another rustle came from the bushes from the surrounding forest. Arthur squeezed his eyes shut and prayed it was an animal coming to make him it’s lunch.  
Theoretically, it was an animal, and it was coming to metaphorically eat him alive.

“I guess the shelter thing didn’t work out for you, huh?”

Arthur covered his face with his hands, hoping he could play dead and make the rotten child go away. For a moment, he thought it had worked, until he heard crackling coming from behind him. _Wait, crackling?_

The poor survivalist finally looked up from his ball of self pity. When he turned around, his senses were met with a warm fire.

“What the fuck?”

“That’s a naughty word.” The child stood over the fire, looking indifferent. He had put a small umbrella over the flame to keep it safe from the rain.

“How did you...do that!?” Arthur stared at the healthy fire, amazed, and quite jealous.

“I found a fairy that shits fire.” He rolled his eyes and walked over to Arthur, something rolled up underneath his arm. “Now help me set this up.

The child dropped the contents he was holding, and rolled out a long tarp. “Grab some logs.” 

Arthur huffed, then reluctantly grabbed the sturdiest logs he could find. When he returned to his pitiful camp, the boy had already begun to set up a decent looking tent, much to Arthur’s dismay. He handed the logs to the young survivalist, and he got to work. 

Within moments, the camp looked a little less pitiful than what Arthur had started with, the man himself was practically dripping with jealousy.

“How did you…how do you know how to set up a camp?” Arthur turned to the boy, who he now had to admit was quite impressive.

“Dunno, my dad just told me how” the child had remained unfazed for the entire time, save for a few chuckles directed towards Arthur’s slip ups. 

Arthur grumbled, he wished someone had taught him how to set up a nice camp like this. He immediately remembered that Percy had tried to teach him to set up a tent once, he should have listened to Percy more. 

Just remembering Percy made his heart sink.

“Oh god, if you’re going to bloody cry just wait until I leave!” Right, that kid was still here. 

Arthur shooed the child away, and he willingly disappeared into the surrounding forest once more.

Finally, the poor tired survivalist curled up in the more appealing shelter, and fell asleep.

 

Morning came once again, and Arthur rose from a less than comfortable sleep. As he stepped out of the shelter, he had almost thought it was all a dream. That he was still snug in his comfy house in the Parade. But he wasn’t, he was in the middle of a forest, and had to have his wits about him.

Next thing on the agenda: food. Arthur hadn’t eaten anything since he escaped the town, and jumping down a mineshaft for a good half hour really works up an appetite.

He checked his pockets.

“Shit!” He had eaten all of his food before beginning his escape through the mineshaft, he honestly didn’t think he would get this far.

“So what’s expected of me? Am I supposed to catch my own food?” This was exactly what was expected of him.

Arthur found himself crouching through the bushes of the surrounding forest, cricket bat clutched close to him. 

“If there are children, there has to be animals.” Is what he told himself. It is what he continued to tell himself the first few hours looking for animals. It was even what he told himself when he really began to feel hungry, and when the lack of rustling in the leaves really began to bother him.

He finally stood up, feeling defeated, and empty. 

Arthur made his empty handed walk of shame back to his small camp. There, he was planning on lying on his side and maybe dying like a rat if he had time.

He crawled into his shelter and fell onto his side, hugging his knees as he curled up and waited for starvation to take him. This plan, however, was short lived as he began to hear rustling noises coming from the outside. Arthur decided to crawl out to investigate what was disturbing his peaceful death.

“Oh, please, don’t stop crying on my account!” Of course, it was none other than that little shit, sitting in a tree, mocking him.

“Why do you keep showing up! Do you find it bloody funny? To watch me suffer!?” Arthur snapped at the child, he finally had enough of being one upped by this small evil creature.

“Geez, just when I thought we were getting along.” The child took a bite out of a bright red apple, which made Arthur’s composure change drastically.

“That’s…that’s an…apple!” Arthur thought about what he said, and rephrased it in fear of being made fun of by the kid again. “I mean…where did you get it?”

“I dunno, some blokes come and pick them off of trees.” He took another bite, purposely making the crunch audible as it seemed to piss off the nerdy looking man.

“Alright!” Arthur attempted to sound stern and formal, but neither could deny the desperation becoming more and more apparent in his tone. “Where can…where can I find an apple tree?”

The child gave Arthur a little snicker. “Are you joking? This whole place is basically an orchard! Just look up!”

Whatever was left of Arthur’s ego had just been wiped off the face of the planet. When looking for food, he had been so set on finding an animal, that he had forgotten all about the existence of edible plants.

“Yes, um…thank you…I guess.” Arthur refused to look the rotten kid in the eyes as he spoke, still too embarrassed to admit he had messed up so many times.

“Hey, there’s nothing to it…I guess.” The child finished up his apple, and threw the core onto the ground by Arthur’s feet. “I guess you’re all set for food then, so I’m going to head home.”

Arthur didn’t say anything as he left this time around, and simply set out to find himself food.

It was a successful search, Arthur had filled his pockets with fresh apples, and even found a clean pond to fill his canteens. 

As he crawled back into his shelter, and the sun was setting, he began to think about the child again. He had somehow appeared whenever Arthur was in need of help, and did end up helping him with whatever the problem was. Perhaps he wasn’t such a little shit after all.

The next day, Arthur sat outside of his camp. He was waiting for the helpful little child to return. Soon enough, he did. He was quite shocked to see Arthur wasn’t angry when he arrived.

“Wow, you look real chuffed.” The kid smirked and crossed his arms. “So, what’s going on?”

“You come from a village, is that right?” Arthur spoke confidently to the younger one, finally getting his priorities straight.

“Yeah, you got that right.” The child looked interested.

“Look, I know I’ve been a bit of an arse lately, but I’ve made up my mind. You’ve…you’ve really helped me survive out here, and I think…” Arthur stopped short as he spotted the giant grin on the child’s face, and it was only growing. “Alright, alright. Can you…bring me to your village.”

A long silence overtook the both of them, until it was finally broken by the hysterical laughter of the small child. “I’ve been waiting for you to say that!!!”

“Is that so.” Arthur’s displeasure with the kid had returned.

“I can’t believe you lasted so long without asking! I was waiting for you to die! Or to hurt yourself or something!!” The child barely managed to choke out his words through his laughter. “Mum even had a room set up for you and everything!”

“What!? Are you kidding??” Arthur acted a little more surprised than he was, he had expected the kid to be a little shit at this point. Still, his frustration had surfaced.

The child had finally calmed down from his laughing fit. “Yeah! I kept telling mum you were passed out, or gone, or something!”

“Why would you do that?!”

“I dunno, it was funny.”

Arthur sighed, he didn’t think he should stay mad at the child, he was a child. 

“Well, come on then. Let’s grab your stuff and get going.” The smart little child was already pulling apart the shelter and fire pit he had previously built, he disassembled them just as quickly as they were assembled.

Arthur helped with what he could, and ended up being the one to carry the umbrella and tarp.

The young boy walked slowly, making sure that Arthur stayed a good pace behind him. They travelled down the path in complete silence for a few minutes.

“So…I never got your name.” Arthur decided to break the silence.

“Wouldn’t you like to know!” The child snapped back.

“Well! I was just trying to make conversation, this walk is getting bloody boring!” Arthur paused for a moment to calm down. “My name is Arthur.”

“Well, that’s nice.” The child remarked sarcastically, refusing to look at Arthur as he spoke.

Arthur decided it was best if he didn’t try to push the unpleasant conversation any further.

After about an hour of walking in awkward silence, the two survivalists came to a clearing in the forest. A large hill with wooden buildings at the top stood before them. 

Constables stood at the base of the hill, where a large wall surrounded it. They weren’t like the constables from town, they looked more friendly, and weren’t wearing those ridiculous masks. They greeted Arthur and the child as they approached, and opened the gate that allowed outsiders access to the staircase leading up to the town.

“Well, this is home sweet home.” The child gestured to the village, and looked to Arthur for his reaction.

“That’s…wonderful.” Arthur could barely believe that such a civilization existed outside of Wellington Wells, in fact, he could barely believe anything existed outside of Wellington Wells.

He was soon snapped out of his amazement, however, as the child shoved Arthur in the side. “Race you to the top!!” He began running as soon as the gate was open, and dashed up the wooden stairs.

“Hey!! Wait a minute!!!” Arthur began running after him, stumbling a few times as the items he was holding made it difficult to move.

They both laughed together as they continued their race up to the top of the staircase.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! This is the first fan fiction I have formally posted, and hopefully you all found it as interesting as I did.
> 
> I’m planning on taking a bit of a break before working on the second chapter.
> 
> Thank you again for reading!
> 
> Be good, and take your Joy!


End file.
